Hosted by the School of Medicine at Cardiff University
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Parkinson's is set to become the number one neurodegenerative disorder by 2040 making this global pandemic of the utmost importance to solve. Treatment developed to against symptoms is effective in a transient manner, with the efficacy reducing over time with use and sometime producing side-effects. In an effort to identify cause and thus new treatments against early pathomechanism, our lab aims to map the timeline of the disorder. Specifically using models genetically faithful to Parkinson's we will assess the changes observed in the condition over time focusing on that which may underlie the specific susceptibility, electrophysiological function and neurotransmission. Ultimately we aim to identify temporally relevant targets of intervention in an effort to combat the disorder.
Dr Dayne Beccano-Kelly has been a UK Future Leader Fellow at the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) at Cardiff University since 2021. This prestigious fellowship has enabled him to investigate synaptic health and function over time to identify early-stage modifiable therapeutic targets. Following his PhD at the University of Leeds, he went on to investigate the potential neuro-protective effects of the feeding hormone leptin in Alzheimer's disease at the University of Dundee, Scotland, before becoming a senior post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia,Canada, Centre for Applied Neurogenetics (CAN). In 2015, Dayne joined the University of Oxford as a Parkinson’s UK Career Development Fellow, before taking up a UK DRI Group leader position at Cardiff.
Dayne's current programme of research aims to establish the temporality of Parkinson’s disease (PD). In doing so he will not only establish novel targets but specifically the temporal window in which to manipulate them, maximizing therapeutic efficacy. By looking longitudinally at disease and concentrating on the early stages of the disorder, he aims to fundamentally shift how we look at PD research. It is however important to work not only on the basic science of the disease, but also patient well-being. Translation is a critical part of research and increasing the benefit of Dayne's research to people with Parkinson’s is paramount.